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April 09, 2013

Atomos Samurai Blade looks sharp

Atomos announced its latest field recorder, the Samurai
Blade, at NAB, which it promises will answer demand for a recorder that is also
a fully fledged on-camera monitor.

It competes with the larger Convergent Design Odyssey7
monitor-cum-recorder on base price ($1,295), but unlike the Odyssey the Blade
includes recording capability from the start, and will be the less expensive
option if you don’t need the raw and higher-speed recording capabilities and extra screen size of the
Odyssey.

“Atomos has now shipped a staggering 10,000 field recorders
worldwide, and the Samurai has been a great success. For most professional
environments it continues to be the go-to recorder or deck for many of our
customers,” said Jeromy Young, CEO and Founder of Atomos.

To build on that success, Blade introduces the SuperAtom IPS
screen, which Young claims is “super sharp, super bright, [with] super blacks –
right down to the last atom. At 325dpi and a million pixels, this screen is
spectacular. With full waveform functionality, the Blade is a monitor that
records and a recorder that truly monitors. It's the perfect partner for the
new wave of cinematic cameras,” he claimed.

The screen uses capacitive touch sensing, which apparently only reduces screen performance by about 5% compared to about 20-30% drop in quality when using the resistive touch used on the older models. Capacitive screens should also react better to your touch.

It is powered by the latest version of the AtomOS, version 5
(which is only available for the Blade), and has a 1280x720 5-inch touchscreen (up from 800x480) that offers users gamma, brightness and contrast control, as well as
vectorscope and RGB/luma parade features.

“Atomos is raising the bar in the affordable field recorder
segment,” claimed Young. “We’re the first to combine professional monitor
functionality with recording and deck playout, all in a space-saving,
camera-mountable portable unit.”

Like its Ninja-2 and Samurai predecessors, Samurai Blade
allows the recording of 10-bit 4:2:2 images straight from the camera sensor
directly to Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD editing codecs. It uses commodity
2.5-inch computer HDD or SSD drives. The Samurai Blade includes tri-level focus
peaking, zebra, false colour and blue-only monitoring in addition to waveform,
and has standard full-size BNC connectors for SDI compared to the mini-BNC used on the Samurai.

The Samurai Blade will ship in May with a list price of
$1,295. In the meantime, Atomos is reducing the price of the Samurai to $995.

Ninja-2 supports more DSLRs

Atomos has added Ninja-2 support for many new DSLR cameras.
“At NAB this year we have over 20 different cameras on our booth working with
our field recorders,” said Young. “Of these, over half are DSLRs with 'clean'
HDMI video output. This time last year there was only one. This is a great
illustration of just how DSLRs and affordable large sensor video cameras are
changing the world of professional video.”

It even showed a pre-release version of the Canon 5D MkIII
working with the Ninja-2. “With this new firmware update from Canon, we have a
clean HDMI feed, and a co-developed start/stop trigger and timecode over HDMI –
essential professional tools. This combination is an absolute game-changer.”

It has also reduced the price of the Ninja-2 to $695. The
Ninja-2 has been repackaged to appeal to DSLR users. The main recording unit
remains unchanged, but the box includes a redesigned docking station, battery,
AC mains adaptor, a single battery charger and shims for Canon and Nikon
batteries.

Atomos also added two new AC-powered Connect converters,
Connect AC H2S (HDMI to HD-SDI) and Connect AC S2H (HD-SDI to HDMI), to its
converter line.

“These two new converters are the AC-powered, fixed facility
counterparts of our recently introduced Connect converters,” said Young (pictured above). “We
listened to customer feedback and learned just how much people hate external
power adaptors - or ‘wall-warts’ – so we decided to eliminate them. Connect-AC
converters are powered by a standard figure-of-8 cable that's more convenient
and more reliable.”

Each costs $295 and includes test pattern generation and
audio test tone. They can also be rack mounted via a $129 kit that holds up to
four Connect-AC converters.

About UrbanFox.TV

Christina Fox has trained thousands of broadcasters, videographers, and others to use camcorders - her long list of clients includes: the BBC, Channel 4, ITN, NBC, Discovery, MTV, the Press Association, Endemol, and UK government departments.

Full details about the training she offers, including tutorials and rewritten, easy-to-understand manuals for some of the most popular professional camcorders, are at UrbanFox.TV.She also writes about gardening and photography at the Photographer's Garden blog

David Fox has worked for various broadcasters as a writer, producer, director, and reporter in TV and Radio, and has worked as a journalist for national newspapers and magazines in the UK and Ireland. Amongst other things, he writes regularly about TV technology for TVB Europe magazine.